Raymond Loewy
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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Raymond Fernand Loewy
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Raymond Loewy. (credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
Raymond Loewy. (credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
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Oxford Grove Art:
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Raymond (Fernand) Loewy
(b Paris, 5 Nov 1893; d Monaco, 14 July 1986). American industrial designer of French birth. He studied (1918) for a degree in engineering at the Ecole de Lanneau in Paris, before serving in the French Army. In 1919 he emigrated to the USA (naturalized 1938). After a brief period as a window-dresser he worked as a freelance fashion illustrator for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue (e.g. Metropolis advertisement for Saks Fifth Avenue from Vogue, 15 March 1927; see Wilson, Pilgrim and Tashjian, p. 86). Working in advertising design steered him towards industrial design. His disappointment with the quality and vulgarity of American products led him in 1929 to design and re-style radios for Westinghouse and duplicating machines for Gestetner. In 1934 he designed the Coldspot refrigerator for Sears Roebuck. Loewy's success was based on his rehousing of American products in streamlined forms in the 1930s. From the 1940s to the 1970s he worked on a number of commissions, such as the corporate logos of many major businesses, including British Petroleum and Shell Oil. Other successful projects were the designs for the S-I locomotive (1937) for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, styling for Studebaker cars (including the Avanti) from 1937 to 1962, the Dole Coca Cola dispenser (c. 1948), architectural designs for International Harvester dealer showrooms and interiors of NASA's Saturn-Apollo and Skylab projects (1967-73). He had offices in many American and foreign cities and enjoyed great success until the 1980s, when financial pressure led to the contraction of his business.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
Oxford Dictionary of Modern Design:
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Raymond Loewy
(1893-1986)
One of the most publicity conscious and productive of the American industrial designers who became feted as celebrities in the interwar years, Raymond Loewy did much to define the profession for subsequent generations. His consultancy was responsible for the design of almost every conceivable product type, from cigarette packs to streamlined steam trains and from dinnerware to dishwashers. Loewy did much to build up the mythology of the industrial designer as having the capacity single-handedly to transform all aspects of everyday life. This was seen in the 1934 design exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where he displayed a somewhat spartan, yet elegant, streamlined mock-up of his design office complete with stylish desktop drawing board, fashionable up-lighter, and tubular steel furniture. With only enough room for a single designer to work in, it belied the fact that industrial design consultancies employed a range of specialists who did much to bring the designer's ideas to readiness for mass production. This outlook was more graphically conveyed in the celebrated cover for Time magazine of October 1949. It featured Loewy set against a backdrop of products including an automobile, refrigerator, cooker, aeroplane, ocean liner, armchair, and fountain pen, as if he had designed them all single-handedly rather than working together with more than 150 employees. He also had a considerable eye for publicity photographs, appearing next to, standing on, sitting in, or using Loewy-designed products. His 1951 autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone did little to dispel his self-created myth.
Born in Paris, he studied engineering from 1910 to 1914 but received his degree in 1918, having interrupted his studies for army service in the First World War. Emigrating to New York in 1919 he found employment as a window-display designer for Macy's as well as graphic work for Saks Fifth Avenue, and fashion illustration for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. Having established his own industrial design consultancy, Raymond Loewy Associates, in 1929, one of his first commissions was the redesign of the Gestetner duplicating machine (1929). Using a clay model to explore ideas for its form and appearance, he transformed an uncoordinated piece of office machinery into an elegant, efficient looking, modern product. As he became more successful Loewy was able to open a product, transport, and packaging design consultancy in Fifth Avenue, New York. Notable among his early commissions were the Coldspot refrigerator designs for the Sears Roebuck & Co. mail order firm for whom he began work in 1932. The most celebrated of these was marketed from 1935 and featured new materials and ideas such as aluminium shelving, storage baskets, a water cooler, and vegetable freshener, all contained within a styled, modern streamlined form. Loewy also worked in many fields of transportation design, his first major commission being the Hupmobile (1934) for the Hupp Motor Company. Loewy began his association with the Studebaker company in 1938 when the 1938 Studebaker was named the ‘Best Looking Car of the Year’ by the American Federation of Arts. After the Second World War Loewy worked briefly with automobile stylist Virgil Exner at Studebaker. Loewy's post-war designs for the company included the Champion (1947), the Starliner (1953), and the fibreglass bodied Avanti (1961). The critical success of the 1953 Studebaker range was such that it was even feted on the cover of Time magazine. Loewy also designed for railways including the 1937 S-1 locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It was displayed at the New York World's Fair of 1939, where visitors could also view his Rocketport of the Future. From 1935 he was also consultant designer to the Greyhound Coach Corporation, producing designs for the streamlined Silversides motor coach (1940) and its 1954 replacement, the sleek, comfortable Scenicruiser. He even worked for NASA from 1967 to 1972, including the interior of Skylab. Other important companies that Loewy worked for included Coca-Cola, Lucky Strike, Rosenthal, Shell, and Exxon. After the Second World War Loewy's consultancy expanded, with offices in New York, Chicago, South Bend, Los Angeles, and London. Loewy also set up the Compagnie d'Esthétique Industrielle in Paris in 1952.
Oxford Dictionary of Architecture & Landscaping:
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Raymond Fernand Loewy
(1893–1986)
French-born American industrial designer. After a chequered career he was retained by the Gestetner firm in 1929 to restyle their products, and his success prompted other firms to employ him (e.g. BP, the Co-op, Exxon, Lockheed, Shell, Studebaker). He designed automobile bodies, railway-engines and passenger-cars, refrigerators, the famous Greyhound buses, and the celebrated Coca-Cola bottle. He and his firm designed various corporate identity packages. Among his later works were the interiors of the Skylab for NASA (1967–73). He published Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951), and must be regarded as a considerable influence on the late-C20 Western environment.
Bibliography
L‘Ad’A ,ccxlvii (Oct. 1986), 96–8- Jodard (1994)
- Loewy (1937, 1951, 1975, 1988)
- Schönberger (ed.) (1990)
The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy (November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was an industrial designer, and the first[citation needed] to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, on October 31, 1949.[1] Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States. Among his work were the Shell and former BP logos, the Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, Coca-Cola vending machines, the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 and S-1 locomotives, the Lucky Strike package, Coldspot refrigerators, the Studebaker Avanti and Champion, and the Air Force One livery. His career spanned seven decades.
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Life and work
Loewy was born in Paris in 1893, the son of Maximilian Loewy, a Viennese journalist, and his French wife, Marie Labalme. An early accomplishment was the design of a successful model aircraft, which then won the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1908. By the following year he was selling the plane, named the Ayrel. He served in the French army during World War I, attaining the rank of captain. Loewy was wounded in combat and received the Croix de guerre. He boarded a ship to America in 1919 with only his French officer's uniform and $50 in his pocket.[citation needed]
Early work
In Loewy's early years in the U.S., he lived in New York and found work as a window designer for department stores, including Macy's, Wanamaker's and Saks in addition to working as a fashion illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In 1929 he received his first industrial-design commission to contemporize the appearance of a duplicating machine by Gestetner. Further commissions followed, including work for Westinghouse, the Hupp Motor Company (the Hupmobile styling), and styling the Coldspot refrigerator[2] for Sears-Roebuck. It was this product that established his reputation as an industrial designer. He opened a London office in the mid-1930s. It is still active.[3]
Pennsylvania Railroad
In 1937, Loewy established a relationship with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his most notable designs for the firm were their passenger locomotives. He designed a streamlined shroud for K4s Pacific #3768 to haul his newly redesigned 1938 Broadway Limited. He followed by styling the experimental S1 locomotive, as well as the T1 class. Later, at the PRR's request, he restyled Baldwin's diesels with a distinctive "sharknose" reminiscent of the T1. While he did not design the famous GG1 electric locomotives, he improved its appearance by recommending welded construction rather than riveted and added a pinstriped paint scheme to highlight its smooth contours.
In addition to locomotive design, Loewy's studios performed many kinds of design work for the Pennsylvania Railroad including stations, passenger-car interiors, and advertising materials. By 1949, Loewy employed 143 designers, architects and draftsmen. His business partners were A. Baker Barnhart, William Snaith and John Breen.[4]
Studebaker
Loewy had a long and fruitful relationship with American car maker Studebaker. Studebaker first retained Loewy and Associates and Helen Dryden as design consultants in 1936[5]:[p.247] and in 1939 Loewy began work with the principal designer Virgil M Exner.[5][6] Their designs first began appearing with the late-1930s Studebakers. Loewy also designed a new logo which replaced the "turning wheel" which had been the trademark since 1912.[5]
During World War II, American government restrictions on in-house design departments at Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler prevented official work on civilian automobiles. Because Loewy's firm was independent of the fourth-largest automobile producer in America, no such restrictions applied. This permitted Studebaker to launch the first all-new postwar automobile in 1947, two years ahead of the "Big Three." His team developed an advanced design featuring flush-front fenders and clean rearward lines. The Loewy staff also created the Starlight body which featured a rear-window system wrapping 180° around the rear seat.
In addition to the iconic bullet-nosed Studebakers of 1950 and 1951, the team created the 1953 Studebaker line, highlighted by the Starliner and Starlight coupes. (Publicly credited to Loewy, they were actually the work of Robert Bourke.)[7]. The Starlight has consistently ranked as one of the best-designed cars of the 1950s in lists compiled since by Collectible Automobile, Car and Driver, and Motor Trend. The '53 Starliner, recognized today as "one of the most beautiful cars ever made",[8] was radical in appearance, as radical in its way as the 1934 Airflow. However, it was beset by production problems.[8] The 1953 Studebakers were actually designed by Robert Bourke, a member of the Loewy's studio but working permanently for Studebaker.
To brand the new line, Loewy also contemporized Studebaker's logo again by applying the "Lazy S" element. His final commission of the 1950s for Studebaker was the transformation of the Starlight and Starliner coupes into the Hawk series for the 1956 model year.
Avanti
In the spring of 1961, Loewy was called back to Studebaker by the company's new president, Sherwood Egbert, to design the Avanti. Egbert hired him to help energize Studebaker's soon-to-be-released line of 1963 passenger cars to attract younger buyers.
Despite the short 40-day schedule allowed to produce a finished design and scale model, Loewy agreed to take the job. He recruited a team consisting of experienced designers, including former Loewy employees John Ebstein; Bob Andrews; and Tom Kellogg, a young student from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The team was sequestered in a house leased for the purpose in Palm Springs, California. Each team member had a role. Andrews and Kellogg handled sketching, Ebstein oversaw the project, and Loewy was the creative director and offered advice.
The Avanti became an instant classic when it was introduced and has many devotees today; others consider its front end styling peculiar. Versions have been produced in limited quantities over the years by a succession of small independent companies, though never with real commercial success.
Death and legacy
Loewy retired at the age of 87 in 1980 and returned to his native France. He died in his Monte Carlo residence in 1986. He was survived by his second wife Viola and their daughter Laurence. In 1992 Viola Loewy and British American Tobacco established the Raymond Loewy Foundation in Hamburg, Germany. The foundation was established to promote the discipline of industrial design internationally and preserve the memory of Raymond Loewy. An annual award of €50,000 is granted to outstanding designers in recognition of their lifetime achievements. Recent grantees include Philippe Starck and Dieter Rams. In 1998, Laurence Loewy established Loewy Design in Atlanta, Georgia to manage her father's continued interests in the United States. Laurence died on October 15, 2008 and is survived by her husband David Hagerman and their son Jacque Loewy. David Hagerman currently manages Loewy Design and the Loewy Estate. The Loewy Estate is currently cataloging the Loewy archives and raising funds to open the Raymond Loewy Museum of Industrial Design, originally envisioned by Laurence Loewy.[citation needed]
Loewy designs
1910s
- Ayrel aircraft, 1909
1920s
- Gestetner mimeograph duplicating machine shell, 1929
1930s
- Farmall tractor letter series, 1939–1954
- Boeing 307 – Interior of the Boeing 307 (Stratoliner) owned by Howard Hughes [9]
- Pennsylvania Railroad:
- PRR K4s steam locomotive
- PRR S1 steam locomotive
- PRR T1 steam locomotive
- PRR GG1 electric locomotive, 1936
- Sears products, including 1935 Sears Coldspot refrigerator
1940s
- Electrolux L300 refrigerator, 1940
- Harley-Davidson components of the 1941 74FL Knucklehead
- Schick electric razor, 1941 [4]
- Lucky Strike, white package, 1942
- Electrolux floor polisher model B6, 1944
- Fairbanks-Morse "Erie-built" (1945) and "C-liner" (1950) models, Model H-10-44 (1944) and H-20-44 (1947), and early Model H-12-44 (1950), H-12-46 (1950), H-15-44 (1947), H-16-44 (1950), and H-16-66 (1950) diesel locomotives
- Hallicrafters Model S-38 shortwave radio, 1946 [10]
- Filben Maestro jukebox, 1947
- 1947 Studebaker Champion, 1947
- Baldwin Locomotive Works Model DR-4-4-15 "Sharknose" diesel locomotives, 1949
- IBM 026 keypunch, 1949
- Norfolk and Western Railway Roanoke, Virginia station renovation (now the O. Winston Link Museum), 1949
1950s
- Coca-Cola Redesign of the original contour bottle, eliminating Coca-Cola embossing and adding vivid white Coke/Coca-Cola lettering, designed and introduced first king-size or slenderized bottles, that is, 10, 12, 16 and 26 oz. (1955) Later, in 1960, he designed the first Coke steel can with diamond design.
- Greyhound Lines Double-Deck Coach PD-4501 Scenicruiser (US Patent 2,563,917), 1951.
- Peace (cigarette), 1952
- Studebaker Commander, 1953
- Northern Pacific Railway, Vista-Dome North Coast Limited (exterior color scheme and interiors), 1954.
- Hillman Minx automobile, Series One onward, 1956–1959.
- Scott-Atwater Royal Scott outboard motor made by McCulloch, 1957
- 500-Series of Cockshutt tractors, 1958
- Le Creuset Coquelle, 1958
- Leisurama homes, 1959
- Dorsett recreational boats, 1959
1960s
- Air Force One's distinctive blue, white and chrome livery, 1962. Variations on Loewy's original design are today flown by most of the U.S. Air Force's fleet of VIP aircraft, including the military "VC" models of 747s, 757s, 737s, and Gulfstreams.(A similar "livery" was applied in 2006 to Union Pacific diesel locomotive #4141 to honor former president George H. W. Bush)
- Union News restaurants coffee shop, at the TWA Flight Center, Idlewild, circa 1962
- Studebaker Avanti, 1963
- United States Coast Guard "racing stripe" logo, 1964
- Five cents John Kennedy postage stamp, 1964
- DF-2000 line of modern furniture, 1965[11]
- Exxon logo, 1966 (introduced in 1972)[12]
- New York City Transit Authority R40 car, whose slant-front design had to be retrofitted with guide rails due to safety concerns, 1967.
- Chubb logo, 1968
- SPAR logo, 1968[13]
1970s
- United States Postal Service eagle logo, 1970
- Shell logo, 1971
- Air France Concorde interior, 1975
- NASA's Skylab space station, first interior design standards for space travel including a porthole to allow a view of earth from space, interior designs and color schemes, a private area for each crew member to relax and sleep, food table and trays, coveralls, garment storage modules, designs for waste management
- Norfolk Scope, hallmark and logo,[14][15]
Work in years or models unknown
- Frigidaire refrigerators, ranges, and freezers
- Coop logo
- Panama Line: Loewy designed the interiors for a trio of American-built cargo liners named the SS Ancon, SS Cristobal and SS Panama.
- the Wahl-Eversharp Symphony fountain pen.
- The International Harvester "IH" "Man on a tractor" logo.
- International Harvester Metro Van (which was redesigned in 1964).
- Dorsett "Catalina", a popular early fiberglass pleasure boat.
- Zippo Lighter[citation needed]
Publications by Loewy
- The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937)
- Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) ISBN 0-8018-7211-1 autobiography
- Industrial Design (1979) ISBN 0-87951-260-1
Bibliography
- Bayley, Stephen. The Lucky Strike Packet (Design Classics Series), Art Books International Ltd (1998) ISBN 3-931317-72-2
- Byars, Mel. "Loewy, Raymond" in American National Biography, American Council of Learned Societies (2000)
- Porter, Glenn. Raymond Loewy Designs for the Consumer Culture, Hagley Museum and Library (2002) ISBN 0-914650-34-3
- Schoenberger, Angela. Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of American Industrial Design, Prestel Publishing (1991) ISBN 3-7913-1449-1
- Trétiack, Phillippe. Raymond Loewy and Streamlined Design, New York: Universe (1999) ISBN 0-7893-0328-0
See also
References
- ^ Loewy on the cover of Time (October 31, 1949)
- ^ Coldspot Refrigerator
- ^ Loewy Group marketing agency
- ^ a b Up from the Egg, Time, October 31, 1949
- ^ a b c Hendry, Maurice M. Studebaker: One can do a lot of remembering in South Bend. New Albany: Automobile Quarterly. pp. 228–275. Vol X, 3rd Q, 1972.
- ^ Setright, L.J.K., "Loewy: When styling became industrial design", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 11, p.1211.
- ^ Automotive Design Oral History – "Reminiscences of Robert E. Bourke"
- ^ a b Ludvigsen, p. 2227.
- ^ "Hughes' Stratoliner". Planeboats.com. http://planeboats.com/Other%20Pages/Plane%20Boat%20Information/hughes.html. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ DF-2000 line of modern furniture that combined the feel of home and office, Raymond Loewy DF-2000 cabinet
- ^ American Treasures of the Library of Congress, Design drawing for Exxon logo by Raymond Loewy
- ^ "SPAR". Raymond Loewy Foundation. http://www.raymondloewyfoundation.com/de/raymond-loewy/loewys-arbeiten/spar.html. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ "Celebrate America this July with Gary Kollberg's Exhibit at the Farmington Library". Farmington Library of Art, Farmington CT, July 2009. http://farmingtonlibctart.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html.
- ^ "What's in a name? Scope Arena, Norfolk". The Virginian Pilot, Pilotonline.com, Patrick Wilson, March 23, 2009. http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/whats-name-scope-arena-norfolk.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raymond Loewy |
- RaymondLoewy.org – official site of Loewy Design, LLC
- LoewyMuseum.org – official site of the forthcoming Raymond Loewy Museum & Library
- RaymondLoewy.com – official site website of Raymond Loewy
- The Raymond Loewy Foundation
- Raymond Loewy Tribute Site – (English/German)
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Design
A Dictionary of Modern Design. Copyright © 2004, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Copyright © 1999, 2006 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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